“Someone said that out of his last six Six Nations matches, five away teams have won. I think he just referees what’s in front of him.

“We were very pleased with the way he handled the breakdown during the World Cup and his control in that area. He did penalise us a few times at scrum-time, but we were very happy with his control of the game.

“At the moment, from the performances we have seen recently, him and Nigel are definitely the two top referees in world rugby.”